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North Cascades Highway to close indefinitely

The North Cascades Highway will close temporarily for an indefinite period 7 p.m. Friday because of a weekend forecast for heavy snow and high winds.

“It’s not safe for our crews or the public to be up there under those conditions. We’ll go back in on Tuesday and evaluate whether we can re-open,” said Don Becker, maintenance supervisor for the state Department of Transportation.

Statee Route 20 between Diablo and Mazama will close until further notice. Forecasts say winds could be as strong as 80 to 100 mph.

Becker says crews will check all the parking areas between the two closure gates to “make sure everyone is out.” While the dangerous weather conditions won’t begin until Saturday, “having the gates closed on Saturday morning will keep anyone who didn’t get the word from getting up there and caught in the weather that’s coming.”

The highway will be closed eastbound at Milepost 134, seven miles east of Diablo Dam on the west side of Rainy Pass, and westbound at Milepost 171, nine miles west of Mazama on the east side of Washington Pass.

The forecast changes dramatically on Monday with rain, a freezing level rising to as high as 8,000 feet and temperatures as high as 40 degrees.

North Central Region Avalanche Control Technician Mike Stanford says he expects the Liberty Bell Mountain avalanche chutes, just east of Washington Pass to fill and release by Sunday morning if the weather comes in as forecast.

The key to reopening is stability of the snow in the chutes and that will depend on how much snow comes down, how quickly the temperature changes and how much rain falls.

Stanford says, “By Tuesday, we could be looking at avalanche chutes with firm and stable snow or dangerous layers of unstable snow.” I

f it can be reopened, it likely will take crews a day or more to clear the roadway for traffic, officials said.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.